Wheel aligning gauge



April 2, 1935. J. F. DUBY WHEEL ALIGNING GAUGE Filed Jan. 7, 19:51

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I N VEN TOR.

Patented Apr. 2, 1935 UNITED srarss lmeans rarest orties y 'Ihisinvention relates to a gauge or instrument whereby thewheels of vehicles may be trued up and brought into alignment or parallelism,l the object, when rubber tired wheels are used, being to prevent objectional wear of the tires due to misalignment or deviation from the proper plane of rotation. Y i r Wheel aligning gauges have been limited in theirv use to certain vehicles, and have lacked portability or ease of securing the reading. The purpose of my linvention -is to devise a gauge which can be used on all cars, trucks, and buses, `that will be easily folded for carrying purposes and that will show the reading in plain sight of the operator without the necessity `of any figuring or calculating.

To these and other related ends the invention consists in the improvements which I will now proceed to describe and claim.

In the accompanying drawingi Fig. l is a front elevational view of the gauge in operating position;

Fig. 2 is a front elevational viewof thel gauge in folded position;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged elevational detail of Vone end portion of the gauge;

Fig. 4 is an end view of the gauge; and Fig. 5 is a central sectional' detail of the telescoping body portions of the gauge.

. My improved wheel aligning gauge comprises an adjustable body, adapted to be extended to measure the distance between two points on two wheels to be tested. The body is composed of two members, one of ywhich is adapted to slide within or upon the other. Each member isprovided with an .upwardly swinging arm carrying gauging members adapted to bear simultaneously on either the inner or outer sides of the wheels. This allows measurements on the outer side of both wheels on narrow. treads, and cntheinner side of one wheel 'and the outer side ofthe other wheel on medium treads, and on the inner side of both wheels on wide treads giving equal utility for all general widths of treads. Y

One of the body members is composed of an adjustable section to vary the length ofthe gauge and is provided with' means for locking said membersY together .to maintain A,any adjusted length of said gauge. One of the upwardly swinging arms is provided with 'a gauging member which may be iixed or' adjustable, and the other arm is provided with Y a yieldingly adjustable gauging member associated with a movable zero point for the first reading, S0 eliminating any Calculating and directly giving the true' result on yieldingly tendA to maintain a shorter distance .between the terminals than the distance between the wheel parts on which thea terminals bear. The spring is of sufficient tension to hold its 5 terminal against the wheel but noty of suicient tension to causerthe oppositeterminal to pull away from the wheel.

The upright arms and gauging members are foldable allowing minimum of space and ease of l0 portability. i

I will now describe the preferred embodiments of the invention sho-wn by the drawing., y f

The sectional body member of variable length is composed of an outer tube 5 and an inner tube 15 6 slidable in the outer tube. A detent 1 carried by the inner tube 5 is projected by a spring through an orifice in the inner tube and into any Vof a series of orices 8 in the outer tube v5. A

shoe 39. is connected to the end of tube 6 to rest 20 on the floor, while a substantially triangular member Bt extends ltransversely at the end of tube 5 to lcooperate in supporting the gauge in an upright position. f The outer end of each tube 5 and 6 is provided 25 with a collar di! carrying upwardly extending parallel anges 4i, juxtaposed pairs ofgbars 9a cooperating to form arms 9 at each end of the gauge and are pivotally connected tothe flanges j lil. For this purpose I preferably provide a pivot 30 bolt 3i at the lower end of each bar 9a, the heads of these bolts being connected by lockingpins .32 (Fig. l) to prevent their. turning when the nuts Sla'shown in Fig. 4, are loosened or tightened. Thus the arms 9 may be swung upwardly to their 35 operative positions, as shown in Fig; 1, or folded downwardly, as shown in Fig. .The pivot bolts 3i and 33 are so arranged as to maintain parallelism at all times betweenthe gauge members it and I4 with respect to the body'members y5 40 and S. The upper ends of the bars 9a are pivotally connected to parallel flanges t2, which are secured to clamping collars 44, the latter being split and provided with hand screws i2, whereby the gauging'members ID and l l may be clamped in adjusted position. Locking'pins 34 connect bolts 33 in the same general-manner as pins 32 connect bolts 3i. It is thus evident that-when I the uprightsare lfolded, the gauging members Si? and H 'will move into positions wherein they are substantially parallel tothe telescoping tubesV 5 and G. It is also evident that the arms 9a .may be clamped for use at any desired angle .between f closed and full open'position thus allowing measw urements to be taken at any desired height from the floor.

Gauging member I I is composed of tube I3 and moving cylinder I4 which yieldingly contacts With the wheel against which it is placed by means of spring 4S. The tube I3 is slidably adjustable lengthwise in clamping collar 44 and locked by means of the screw I2 and the cylinder I4 can be Withdrawn into the tube I 3 by means of the knob I9 which is rmlyattached to the cylinder I 4 by rod 28. On tube I3 is placed graduated scales I6. On the cylinder'` I4 is a pointer mark I8 which is visible through the slot I'I and engaging with scale I5. The gauge may be operated as follows. A

The sections 5 and 6 of the body can be adjusted so that the distance between the Ygauging member Ii! and cylinder Ill is approximately the same as the distance between the wheel points on which they are to bear. With the pointer end of the gauge towards the operator, the gauging member IB is placed against the wheel.

Loosening the thumb nut on the arm carrying the gauging member II, the tube is adjusted lengthwise in Vclamping, collar 44 so that while the cylinder bears against the wheel the ring or pointer mark on the cylinder is opposite the Zero mark of the scale. The thumb nut is tightened retaining the position of the tube with respect Ato the arm 9. The spot where the cylinder bears against the wheel is marked. The gauge is now removed from position and the operator moves the vehicle causing the wheel to turn until the marked spot is carried to a-position on the opposite side of the axle. The gauge is placed in its second position on the opposite side of the axle. The cylinder is manually retracted into the tube, the gauge swung into place and the cylinder allowed to reissue from the tube and bear against the marked spot on the wheel and the operator may note by reading the scale if there is any variation from the rst reading of zero. f

j The adjustability of the'tube I 3 to obtain a first reading of zero eliminates any necessity of calculation after the second reading. If there is any variation between the two readings then the pointer mark I8 Will so indicate by its position on either side of zero as the case may be.

Obviously, if theiwheels are parallel then the second reading will be zero also.

I am not limited to the specific mechanism of the preferred embodiment of my improvements as shown by the drawing except as otherwise required in certain of the limited claims.

I regard any construction of the body providing two parallel members slidable lengthwise relatively to each other to render the body adjustable as toits length, its foldability, and yielding means with its phase of simplicity of reading the result, as within the scope of my invention as defined by the appended claims.

It should be understood that the present disclosure is for the purpose cf illustration only and that this invention includes all modications and Vequivalents which fall Within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A Wheel aligning gauge comprising an adjustable body composed of Vmembers relatively movable to lengthen or shorten the body, arms pivoted at the outer ends of said body members and swingable from folded to operating position, elongated gauging members supported by said arms, and means for maintaining parallelism between the gauging members and the body meinbers of the gauge at all times.

2. A wheel aligning gauge adapted to rest upon a iioor and having anelongated body portion, arms pivoted at the outer ends of said body portion and swingable from folded to operating position, elongated gauging members carried by said arms, and means for maintaining parallelism between the gauging members and said body portion when the arms are in either folded or operating position. Y, 'i

3. A wheel aligning gauge adapted to rest upon a iloor and having an elongated body portion, arms pivoted adjacent one end thereof at the outer Vends of said body portion and swingable from folded to operating position, supporting means provided at the free end of each arm adaptedto carry a gauging member, and means to maintain a given angular relationship between said supporting means and the body portion of the gauge'atall times. l

["4. A wheel aligning gauge adapted to rest upon a' floor and having an elongated body portion, arms pivoted at the outer ends of said body portion and'swingable from folded to operating position, elongated gauging members carried by said arms, means for maintaining parallelism between the gauging members and said body portion, when 'the arms are in either folded or operating position, at least one of said gauging members comprising a spring-pressed wheel-engaging element, and means toindicate the position of said element relative to its associated arm while the element is in contact with a wheel part.

5. A wheel aligning gauge adapted to rest upon a iioor and having an'elongated body portion, armspivoted at the outer ends of said body4 portion, saidv arms being. swingable towards each other when moved from operating to folded position, cylindricalgauging members supported by said arms, and means to provide substantially parallel positioning of the gaugingmembers relative to said body portion of the gauge when the swingable arms are in folded position..

6. Awheel aligning gauge adapted to rest upon a floor and having an elongated body portion, arms pivoted at the outer ends of said body'portion and swingable from folded to operating position, elongated gauging members carried by said arms, means for maintaining parallelism between the gauging members and the bodyv portion of the gauge in all operating positions of said members, and means to maintain desired angular positioning of the arms relative'to said body portion.

7. A wheel aligning gauge adapted to rest upon a oor and having an elongated body portion, arms pivoted at the outer ends of said body portion and swingable from folded to operating position, elongated gauging members carried Vby said arms, means for maintaining parallelism between the gauging members and the body portion of the gauge in all operating positions of said members, at least one of said gauging members including an elongated housing, and a wheelengaging member slidably mounted within said housing. p

, 8.V A wheel aligning gauge adapted to rest upon a floor and having an elongated body portion, arms pivoted at the outer ends of said body portion and swingable from folded to operating position, velongated gauging members carried by said arms, means forvmaintaining parallelism between the gauging members and the body portion of the gauge in all operating positions of said members, at least one of said gauging members including an elongated housing, and means to maintain said housing in desired adjusted relationship with respect to its supporting arm.

9. A wheel aligning gauge adapted to rest upon a floor and having an elongated body portion, arms pivoted. at the outer ends of said body p0r tion and swingable from folded to operating position, elongated gauging members carried by said arms, means for maintaining parallelism between each gauging member and the body portion of the gauge in all operating positions of said members, said means comprising parallel arms and a plurality of pivot members, the latter being positioned in quadrilateral arrangement.

10. A Wheel aligning gauge adapted to rest upon a oor and having an elongated body portion, arms pivoted at the outer ends of said body portion and swingable from folded to operating position, elongated gauging members carried by said arms, means for maintaining parallelism between the gauging members and thev body portion of the gauge in all operating positions of said members, and indicating means associated with at least one of said gauging members.

11. A Wheel aligning gauge adapted to rest .upon a iloor and having an elongated body portion, arms pivoted at the outer ends of said body portion and swingable from folded to operating position, elongated gauging members carried by said arms, means for maintaining parallelism between the gauging members and the body portion of the gauge in al1 operating positions of said members, at least one-of said gauging members including an elongated housing, a Wheel-engaging member slidably mounted within said housing, and manually operated means to facilitate movement of said wheel-engaging member lengthwise in said housing.

JOHN FABIEN DUBY. 

